There has been strong growth in Malaysia's telecom sector over the last decade, but the growth has not been consistent across the sector. The number of fixed-line services, after growing rapidly at first, had been relatively static for around ten years; then we saw clear evidence of a shrinking subscriber base. The mobile market by contrast has been more spectacular, racing to more than 40 million subscribers by early 2013, a penetration of over 140% and up from just 6 million subscribers in 2000. After starting off slowly, broadband internet has been expanding strongly in recent years and by mid-2013 had reached a remarkable 67% household penetration. This report takes a broad look at the growth in Malaysia's telecommunications sector and where it has reached. The report also describes how the country has continued to allocate capital to invest in information technology and telecommunications infrastructure despite setbacks caused by periods of difficult regional and global economic conditions. Note that more details on the telecom market segments and sector operators are provided in other Malaysia reports.

Key developments:

MCMC awarded LTE/4G spectrum licences to nine companies, effective by start 2013;A number of operators had promptly launched initial LTE/4G offerings in 2013;household broadband penetration in Malaysia had reached 67% by mid-2013;Stage 1of the HSBB network build out by Telekom Malaysia was completed ahead of schedule;The government had approved a funding plan for Stage 2 of the HSBB (HSBB2);MCMC moving on contract to set up Digital Terrestrial TV Broadcasting (DTTB);strong subscriber growth continued on the HSBB service;proposed Asia Pacific Gateway (APG) undersea cable set to launch in early 2014;BDM submarine cable commissioned in 2012;MEASAT-3b satellite planned launch deferred to March 2014.